Children Displaced From Kabaale Refinery Land Miss School Term Opening

Hundreds of school going age children settling in Kyakaboga where government resettled their parents from Kabaale oil refinery area are stranded after learning that their school won’t open for new term today.

Kyapuloni primary school was shifted by government to Kyakaboga to cater for the oil refinery affected persons children whom government resettled last year.

Richard Orebi, the chairperson of the project affected residents said hundreds of pupils abandoned Nyahaira and Kyapaloni primary schools in Buseruka Sub-County, after their parents received compensation and vacated the area.

The government in August last year handed over the houses it constructed for the people at Kyakaboga village in Buseruka Sub-County, Hoima district. The government also established a school a few metres from the houses.

Orebi said when the people came they had hope since the government had showed them the structures for the new school but there is no communication from the education department that the school will open for the new term.

Authorities say the contractor on the school provided substandard furniture especially desks and that the pupils have nowhere to sit for lessons.

Julius Omachi one of the affected residents says they’re stuck because their children can’t move to neighboring schools located over 4 kilometers away. As a result, he added, close to 300 school children living in Kyakaboga alone, will not be able to start the new term today.

Hoima district education officer Godfrey Sserwanja in a phone interview confirmed that the school won’t open today and advised the pupils to report to the neighboring schools.

However Siraji Bendijo, the Buseruka secretary for education and health blamed the education department for failing to provide clear information in time to the parents.